earticle

영어

Machine tools are called mother machine symbolizing the status as a backbone of the whole machinery industry. Among the major machine tools are machining center, lathe, drilling machine, grinding machine, presses and forging machines. Main upstream industries of machine tools are forging, moulding, heat treatment, precision measurements, noise/vibration control, electronic controls and CAD/CAM, while the main downstream industries are machinery, automobiles, aviation, electronics, and shipbuilding to name a few. We study the changes in Korean machine tool trade competitiveness with the European Union(EU) following the enactment of Korea-EU FTA on July 1st 2011. Korean machine tool export volume to the EU has increased from 0.16% of total exports to the EU in 1991 to 1.13% in 2018 while import volume of Korean machine tools from the EU decreased from 1.80% of total imports from the region in 1991 to 0.41% in 2018. For the analysis of changes in the international competitiveness of Korean machine tool industry, we have applied various indices and included the US, China, Japan and Germany in the sample. First, in terms of RCA(revealed comparative advantage), Korea ranked second with 3.102~4.771 after Japan with 7.457~9.852. Second, for TSI(trade specialization index), Korea showed a large variation among eight 4-digit HS codes(HS8456~HS8463). This indicates Korea is concentrating on a couple of key sub-groups of machine tools. Third, for CAC(comparative advantage by countries), we could find that Korea recorded the highest level both before and after the Korea-EU FTA with a large margin against major competing countries. Finally, in terms of ESI(export similarity index), Korea is competing in the EU market most fiercely with Japan and then with Germany and the US. Overall, following the Korea-EU FTA, Korean machine tool industry has improved her trade competitiveness against major producer countries by a noticeable difference.